Interest in nanotechnology, in particular sub-microelectronic technologies such as semiconductor quantum dots and nanowires, has been motivated by the challenges of chemistry and physics at the nanoscale, and by the prospect of utilizing these structures in electronic and related devices.
A semiconductor nanowire, in an electronic device, is often fabricated in physical contact with one or more electrodes, which allow the nanowire to be interfaced with the rest of the device. Such electrodes are often metal, for example, gold or silver. However, the metal-semiconductor junction between the electrode and the nanowire creates a Schottky barrier, which inhibits conductance or transconductance measurements of the nanowire or otherwise impedes its performance. While Schottky barriers can be reduced by increasing dopant concentrations within the semiconductor nanowire, such increases in dopant concentrations will generally reduce the mobility of the charge carriers within the nanoscale wire, which can impede the performance of the nanowire. However, reducing dopant concentrations within the semiconductor nanowire will reduce the number of available charge carriers within the nanoscale wire, and it would be expected by those of ordinary skill in the art that such a reduction in dopant concentration would decrease the conductivity of the nanowire, ultimately rendering it an insulator if no charge carriers are present.
Accordingly, techniques are needed to improve properties of semiconductors, e.g. allowing the creation of metal-semiconductor junctions essentially free of Schottky barriers between the metal electrode and the semiconductor nanowire.